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ASEAN and Regional Security in East Asia Rizal Sukma

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ASEAN and Regional Security in East Asia Rizal Sukma ASEAN And Regional Security In East Asia Rizal Sukma INTRODUCTION Despite all its weaknesses, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has arguably played a significant role in shaping and contributing to regional security in Southeast Asia and beyond. Even though it has not ridden itself completely from sources of conflicts and tension, Southeast Asia has enjoyed a rather long period of peace and stability. By the 1990s, ASEAN had managed to incorporate former “enemies” such as Vietnam and Laos into the grouping, and even completed the idea of ASEAN-10 with the admission of Cambodia and Myanmar as members. Indeed, within Southeast Asia, ASEAN has played a central role in ensuring that war is no longer an acceptable instrument of conflict resolution among its members. The focus of inter-state relations among regional countries soon turned into regional economic cooperation and building trust. ASEAN’s security role has also extended beyond Southeast Asia. After the end of the Cold War, ASEAN managed to maintain its relevance by embracing the process, and taking an active part in shaping the post-Cold War regional security architecture in East Asia. It managed to place itself at the centre of multilateral security arrangements in East Asia, which links the two sub- regions of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. This has been well demonstrated in the proliferation of ASEAN-based multilateral institutions in the region since 1993, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) process, and the East Asian Summit (EAS). Consequently, ASEAN-based multilateral institutions have become one of two main pillars of regional ASEAN And Regional Security In East Asia And Regional Security In East ASEAN 109 security architecture in East Asia. The other pillar is the bilateral alliance system led by the United States (US).1 East Asia, however, has always been a dynamic region constantly characterised by challenges. The future of regional security has now increasingly been shaped and influenced by two key developments: the inevitable emergence of China and India as major powers and the growing salience of non-traditional security (NTS) problems. While the first development would bring about a major geostrategic shift in East Asia, the second development complicates the security challenges facing the region. As such, ASEAN faces an increasingly more complex strategic environment within which its security role will be tested. If ASEAN wants to maintain its relevance and role in a rapidly changing East Asia, it is imperative for the association to consolidate itself. This article discusses the challenges facing ASEAN’s role in managing East Asian regional security within the context of a set of challenges associated with the emergence of a new regional order. The discussion is divided into three sections. The first section describes the strategies and principles employed by ASEAN in managing regional security over the last four decades. The second section examines the new challenges that could erode ASEAN’s role as a manager of regional order. The third section suggests some practical measures that ASEAN needs to take in order to maintain its role as a security actor in East Asia. ASEAN AS A MANAGER OF REGIONAL ORDER: STRATEGIES AND PRINCIPLES When it was established in August 1967, ASEAN constituted an experiment at ensuring regional security through an agreement to create a regional order which permitted member countries to pay more attention to, and devote their resources for, the more pressing task of internal consolidation and economic development. This approach to regional security had served member countries well. Indeed, the preservation of regional stability and the maintenance of internal order allowed ASEAN countries to achieve remarkable 1 See William Tow and Brendan Taylor, “What Is Regional ‘Security Architecture?’”, paper prepared Security Politics in Asia and Europe in Security Politics for the ISA 2008 Annual Conference, San Francisco, 26-29 March 2008, p. 2. 110 achievements in accelerating domestic economic development. As ASEAN’s confidence grew, the association began to extend its security role beyond Southeast Asia. With the establishment of the ARF in 1993, the APT in 1997, and the EAS in 2005, regional order in East Asia was increasingly characterised by ASEAN-centred processes. Indeed, through these initiatives, ASEAN managed to position itself as a manager of regional order of some sort, not only within Southeast Asia but also in the wider East Asian region. ASEAN’s transformation from a modest sub-regional asso- ciation into an organisation that underpinned multilateral pro- cess in East Asia reflected its relative success in coping with security challenges, both within Southeast Asia and beyond. ASEAN’s approach to security has never been driven by an overriding concern over a single issue.2 Since its inception in August 1967, ASEAN has always approached security matters in a comprehensive manner. For Southeast Asian countries, security has always encompassed wide arrays of issues in social, cultural, economic, political, and military fronts. Problems in those areas— especially within the domestic context—are seen to have the potential to destabilise nation-states and regional peace and security. Based on such a conception of security, ASEAN has always distinguished security in terms of traditional and non-traditional threats. However, until very recently, ASEAN countries tended to see non-traditional security issues primarily as domestic problems of member states, which required national solutions. The growing salience of non-traditional problems since the end of the Cold War, however, forced ASEAN to recognise the importance of inter-state cooperation in dealing with such issues. In resolving regional security issues, both at national and regional levels, ASEAN from the outset undertook two interrelated approaches. First, threats from non-traditional security problems were left to individual member states to resolve, especially through nation-building measures. Second, to enable individual states to resolve those problems, regional cooperation is necessary to 2 The following analysis is partly drawn from Rizal Sukma, “ASEAN, Regional Security and the Role of the United States: A view from Southeast Asia”, Paper Presented at Conference on “A New Horizon for Japan’s Security Policy: Basic Concepts and Framework”, Institute for International Policy Studies (IIPS), Tokyo, 30 November-1 December 2004. Asia And Regional Security In East ASEAN 111 create a peaceful external environment so that states would not be distracted from domestic priorities. These approaches later evolved into a strategy of building regional resilience, a conception influenced by Indonesia’s thinking of ketahanan nasional (national resilience). Such thinking postulates that “if each member nation can accomplish an overall national development and overcome internal threats, regional resilience will automatically result much in the same way as a chain derives its overall strength from the strength of its constituent parts”.3 In other words, ASEAN believed that the management of inter-state relations in the region should be founded on the sanctity of national sovereignty of its member states. Regional cooperation was sought in order to reinforce, not erode, that sovereignty. Despite its appearing to be inward looking, ASEAN’s strategy to nurture and maintain regional security did not ignore the role of external powers. Indeed, during the Cold War, Southeast Asia had always been a theatre for rivalries and competition among major powers, notably China, the US, and the Soviet Union. Aware of such reality, however, ASEAN sought to limit the negative effects of rivalries among major power on the region. ASEAN also maintains its preference for regional solutions to regional problems, and agreed that the presence of foreign military bases is temporary in nature. In 1971, ASEAN declared the region as a Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (ZOPFAN), and in 1995, the region was declared as a nuclear free zone (SEANWFZ). For the most part of the Cold War period, however, these measures served as no more than declaration of intent. Due to differences in security interests of ASEAN member states, the role of major powers remained a significant factor in the security of the region. For example, it has been acknowledged, “since the end of World War II, the U.S. has provided Southeast Asia with a security umbrella that has been a stabilising factor for the development of the region.”4 3 Jusuf Wanandi, “Security Issues in the ASEAN Region”, in Karl D. Jackson and M. Hadi Soesastro, eds., ASEAN Security and Economic Development, Research Papers and Policy Studies no. 11 (Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1984), p. 305. 4 Tommy Koh, “Southeast Asia”, in Kim Kyung-won, Tommy Koh, and Farooq Sobhan, America’s Security Politics in Asia and Europe in Security Politics Role in Asia: Asian Views (San Francisco: The Asia Foundation, 2004), p. 38. 112 With the end of the Cold War, ASEAN’s approach to regional security began to change. First, while some ASEAN countries began to be more flexible, the notion of sovereignty as the basis for regional cooperation remains paramount. For example, ASEAN has recognised the imperative for cooperation among member states to resolve domestic problems with cross-border effects. Such an acknowledgment, however, is more visible among the old members of ASEAN, especially
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